Nearly all set up

The whole process of my moving to the States, starting from the very moment that M. and I decided that I would be joining him in New York, has involved immigration law. I haven't written anything about the process mainly because up until now I have been too busy dealing with it, and also partly because I felt that once I started I would not be able to shut up about it - it is a process that has required much of my (and M.'s) time.

The reason why I write about it now is because yesterday M. and I reached a critical milestone in the process - we attended my green card interview and I received the stamp in my passport that says I have 'temporary' permanent resident status (this in itself merits another post. What a ridiculous title?). I feel this is a good point for me to sum up the experience.

I understand why people hire lawyers to go through this process. I am a lawyer and I still found it initially difficult to understand exactly what I was meant to do at every step. Even though the immigration department sent me letters with instructions, you have to go online and scroll through pages before you can find out in what format and in what order you need to submit everything. And after all that research, you still don't get the answers you want so you end up joining discussion boards on the topic to find out exactly what you need.

I also understand why the process is necessary. On those discussion boards I found lesbians advertising for gay men to join them in marriage fraud. I found people discussing methods of obtaining illegal IDs. I found pretty much everything under the sun. At my initial interview at the American consulate in Hong Kong, the girl next to me being interviewed for the same visa was a Filipina who had met her American boyfriend through an internet chatroom. The contrast between her situation and mine could not have been clearer.

Preparation for every stage was tough. You don't feel confident that you've filled in all the forms correctly, you don't know if your supporting documents are adequate, even if you check them time and again. The initial file we submitted had to be about three inches thick. The second file was about the same. And the third. The waiting time spent in between wondering when you'd find out the results felt incredibly long, but it appears we were lucky and were processed quite quickly compared to some others.

We still have the final stages to go for my 'temporary' condition to become permanent. But now I feel a lot more confident about everything going smoothly.

Not that M. ever worried about anything, mind. After today's interview he said, "See? Everything turned out fine. And you were so worried."